The Enterprise as an Environment for Creativity
The International Herald Tribune published an online article comparing the responses to creative productivity of different countries. In this article we learn, for example, that last year China filed more patents than Britain, France and Germany combined. We also learn that World Intellectual Property Day was celebrated around the world to pay tribute to the role that intellectual property plays, turning ideas to products.
What is true of countries is true of companies. Siloed creativity within a company depletes its overall impact and value. It also loses out on synergies between and across departments. Technological advances as well as sociological realities create such an environment that ideas can be shared over the corporate intranet, portal, wiki or blog building the companyâs intellectual capital. As creatures of habit, however, we are quite protective of our ideas in the workplace. It is therefore through the strength of the network, physical and virtual, that an environment can be cultivated to capture the creative productivity and synergies across a business enterprise.
